ID cards to be issued to Indian coastal villagers

New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) In a bid to strengthen the security in coastal areas in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, a high-level official meeting here Saturday decided to issue identity cards to fishermen and multi-purpose national identity cards to coastal villagers. The meeting, chaired by cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, reviewed issues relating to coastal and maritime security and also decided to constitute a group to look into the issue of inter-operability of the two types of ID cards.

The meeting, attended by the home secretary, deputy national security advisers, secretaries of defence, shipping, fisheries and top defence and foreign ministry officials, agreed about putting in place a uniform system of registration of all types of vessels.

The Department of Shipping was assigned the nodal responsibility to streamline the registration process, including the legal aspect, in consultation with coastal states, union territories and the law minister.

“The meeting focussed on the implementation aspects and progress vis-a-vis the entire range of issues relating to maritime and coastal security,” an official statement said.

The discussion “included the Coastal Security Scheme, uniform system for registration for fishing and other vessels, uniform system of issuance of Multipurpose National ID cards (MNIC) to fishermen, issuance of identity cards to the population living in the coastal villages, installation of navigational and communication equipments on the fishing vessels”, said a government release.

“The review of the initiatives in respect of coastal and maritime security has enabled further streamlining of the implementation time-lines and in resolving cross-cutting issues,” the release said.

The meeting, which emphasised the need for installation of navigational and communication equipments on the boats for tracking their movement, also assigned Nautical Advisor to work out the technical details of such equipment in consultation with Coast Guard, National Informatics Centre and ISRO.